With all seats up for grabs, House effect on nuke vote tough to call

Benjamin Grove

Saturday, Oct. 28, 2000 | 3:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- How will the hotly contested House races nationwide affect a vote on a nuclear waste bill next year?

The 435-member House is harder to analyze than the 100-member Senate.

In the House where every seat is up for grabs, at least 19 races are designated "toss-ups," according to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper. Another 46 are designated close races but leaning either Republican or Democrat, Roll Call said. (Nevada's two seats are unlikely to change.)

Assuming that Congress next year passes a bill relating to nuclear waste shipments to Nevada -- as it did this year -- the questions again become: will the president veto it? And will two-thirds of the House and Senate vote to sustain the veto?

This year, the Senate did sustain President Clinton's veto -- barely -- so the House never had to vote on Clinton's action.

If it had gotten that far, the House probably would have sustained the veto because it passed the bill on a 253-167 vote -- well short of 290 votes needed for a two-thirds majority override.

It's tough to know if this year's elections would change all that math.

Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev., said he looks forward to a Republican president and Republican House working together on a nuclear waste bill.

"I am actively involved in seeing to it that Republicans understand this issue," Gibbons said. "Once new members get here, it's always an educational process to build that understanding about the dangers of nuclear waste."

Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., agreed about the educational process of new members, but not about the Republican majority. She predicts Democrats will take control of the House.

"The current Speaker, Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), is one of the leading proponents of storing nuclear waste in Nevada," Berkley said. "Since (would-be Speaker Richard) Gephardt is a proponent of the Nevada position, there is less opportunity for mischief insofar as he will not be pushing legislation to store nuclear waste in Nevada."